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POLITICO 44

I’m talking about the recent effort to take away certain rights of individual senators by attempting to eliminate the filibuster. Currently, any senator can extend debate indefinitely on an issue — until 60 senators vote to end discussion.

Even freshman senators in the minority party have the power to make themselves heard on any issue — and ensure that the views of the people in their states are considered.

The Senate is where people who live in low-population states have a voice. The filibuster makes this possible.

The senators proposing to end the filibuster may be frustrated and worried. They lost power in the past election. They don’t have close to 60 votes anymore. It’s harder to stop a filibuster — but we all have to live under the laws passed by Congress. We all need a say.

The current Senate majority will not be the majority party forever. I have a list of quotes describing the filibuster as “sacred” and “cherished” from senators in both parties. They decry the elimination of the filibuster as a “naked power grab” and a “constitutional crisis.” These words were uttered a few years ago by some of the same people who are rejecting what they once loved.

Now, they say the filibuster has been abused and that they’ve had to overcome filibusters a record number of times. Those arguments fall flat when you look a little deeper. We have just been through two years when legislating was the exception, not the rule. But it wasn’t because of filibusters.

Over the past two years, the tried-and-true process of turning a bill into a law was short-circuited. Thousand-page bills were thrown together behind closed doors by one party, then sent directly to the Senate floor without debate by the committees of jurisdiction.

Senators were prevented from offering amendments. Monstrous bills were expected to be voted on without enough time for senators to read them or to offer suggestions on how to make them better. That is not the way to legislate.

When bills don’t go through the committee process, errors happen. The process exists for a reason. Bills that go through it have a difficult time, and should, if they are voted out on party lines. The committee process works.

Readers' Comments (14)

If the Filibuster is so precious to you perhaps you had better vote for the subtle changes being proposed to keep it alive, because the abuse it has suffered at the hands of the republicans has left the democrats little choice but to modify it or kill it.

Our US Senate has been called the "Greatest Deliberating Body in the World" for a reason - the filibuster - the voice of one is as important as the voice of majority. Our founders wanted everyone to have a voice in the legislative process. When the majority of 50% plus 1 can stifle the voices of the other 49%, we will have nothing short of a dictatorship which could easily outlaw any distention. (In order to see the downfalls of any idea, you must imagine the worst scenario - not the best or the tweaking.)

Reid has used and abused the cloture motion ever since he became the Senate Majority Leader in 2007. The cloture motion cuts off all debate to 1.25 days (30 hours). Reid has also limited amendments to a certain number (sometimes not allowing any minority amendments because he accepted his party members' amendments first and no slots remained for the minority) or to NO amendments. Whenever his cloture motion is defeated, Reid calls it a "FILIBUSTER" - even though no debate had even begun. (One would only have to watch C-Span2 to know that Reid is merely politicking to the masses by misusing the word.)

It appears that Reid has not yet transformed his mindset from the House of Representative, where majority rules, to the Senate, where every voice must be heard. Perhaps, he and the other filibuster-busters should resign from the Senate as they are not knowledgeable enough about how the Senate is to work.

During any Congress, the House will pass thousands of bills based solely on the whims of the majority. The Senate was never intended to pass anything that wasn't ruminated enough to stand the test of time. Since the cloture motion to limit debate was enacted by the Senate during the Wilson administration, many of the laws and regulations since passed have brought on the economic decline of our nation and our people. The laws have become so entangled and intertwined that it is now near impossible to eliminate one of them. In order to read many of the current bills, one needs a full library of the volumes of laws and regulations to cross-reference just to determine the real affect of the new bill.

Such is the consequence of having the cloture motion which will only get worse if the Senate reverts to the majority rules.

The filibuster has been of great use to the multi national corporations that currently run the US government.

During the coming two years, Congress will pass more legislation to accelerate the redistribution of wealth from the middle class to the business elite. GE, Comcast, the banksters and Wall St. will be able to use the filibuster to block any repeal of these new policies.

Let's see. Must be the democrats wanting to change the filibuster rule. They must be afraid of the Republicans ability to make it stick! Another example of the "fairness" of democrats. As long as it works for them - they are for it! If it helps Republicans = they are agin it! The Republicans should NOT allow this to happen.

Let's see. Must be the democrats wanting to change the filibuster rule. They must be afraid of the Republicans ability to make it stick! Another example of the "fairness" of democrats. As long as it works for them - they are for it! If it helps Republicans = they are agin it! The Republicans should NOT allow this to happen.

There has NEVER been abuse of the fillibuster like there was in the last congress.

Republican Senators were allowed to just call fillibuster and then go have a cocktail with whatever lobbyist was financing their next campaign.

wow this article is SO disingenuous no one is talking about REMOVING the filibuster they are simply talking about some common sense reforms that would keep it in place just stop some of the more stupid abuses

There were more filibusters used in the last 4 years than in the entire history of the Republic

They were never designed to stop everyday business just to be used as a measure of last resort

The fact they are being used for even amazingly simple stuff like motions to recommit show the process is so broken it is paralysing government

The founders never intended for the Senate to have to reach 60 votes for a majority rule

The fact that 40 senators can totally shut down the will of the majority is very undemocratic, last I checked 51 out of 100 was a majority not 60

This article is full of lies and misinformation - the author should be ashamed of himself for such HACKERY

"Opinion: Weakening or eliminating it would concentrate power in the hands of fewer people." - this coming from the party that wants to put control and power to set the ENTIRE budget into ONE person's hands. good grief, enzi. think before you speak. or write. or anything.

Senate rules are not sacrosanct. I have a few ideas myself — like including only one topic per bill, not allowing votes to be traded and guaranteeing time to read the before voting. These changes would not weaken the Senate, and I don’t expect them to be passed without proper debate and input from my colleagues.

Lets not expect the august senate to turn over a leaf and become sensible. Yet I do favor a change of the number of senators required to break a filibuster to simple majority because of the abuse the current minority has been guilty of. Do I think it will happen.....no because when the dems become minority, and at some point they will, they'll want the same instrument to be available. I happen to have two good senators, not all the nation is as fortunate. They want to move forward and do the peoples business with a minimum of politics, not obstruct at EVERY junction. So far in the last session of the senate we've seen more of the will of the minority, to do nothing, as an admitted political tactic, than carrying out the peoples business. Got to stop.

Either way the Senate has become ineffective in providing voices of reason, legislation of merit and enlightened leadership via open debate. If changing the rules in any way helps to further those results than I believe the nation will benefit and accept the special position of this branch of Congress. If, however, the senators are unable to so produce an improvement then more drastic actions (constitutional amendments to eliminate this democratic roadblock) will be required. The Senate can not expect to continue their behavior of these last few years and not suffer the same fate as the British House of Lords.

If, however, the senators are unable to so produce an improvement then more drastic actions (constitutional amendments to eliminate this democratic roadblock) will be required

I don't think the senate rules can be changed by CA, that would be wholey inappropiate and ineffective in this matter. The simplicity of the resolution I believe lies in voting your senator out, IF, he/she, ARBITRARILY, and for solely POLITICAL reasons, blocks the business of the people. If u can't vote them out, what chance have you at a CA.

Enzi, you're hilarious. The GOP ABUSED the filibuster more than any other group in the entire history of this nation. EARN the 6 figures the taxpayers pay you: show up and do the hard work. And if that means hours of reading from the phone book, so be it.

I’m talking about the recent effort to take away certain rights of individual senators by attempting to eliminate the filibuster.

Enzi, that's just an outright lie! No one is attempting to eliminate the fillibuster!

You know that! I know that, but your still talking out of your ass trying to spread knowing lies about the attempt to reform how the fillibuster will work in the future after the Republicans years of misuse.